Saturday, October 13, 2012

Here's a thought about Laurie and the universal blind stereotype

Alice,
And as I keep shouting, it is not about Laurie.  It is about the mindless response to the Universal Blind Stereotype. 
Carl Jarvis
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2012 7:08 AM
Subject: Re: [acb-l] Here's a thought about Laurie and the nonflight

If I'm not mistaken, this Laurie woman indeed did have a folding cane, did she not? I thought I remembered reading in the account of the incident that when the flight attendant asked her where her cane was, she said it was in the case on her belt or something like that? 

On Oct 11, 2012, at 9:08 AM, Chris Coulter <forestelf1@comcast.net> wrote:

Well, I never had a problem using a folding cane on a plane but I haven't flown since way before September 11th, 2001. I haven't a clue how I would be treated now, although, as usual, it wouldn't stop me from using my folding cane and then folding it up when appropriate.
Chris
On Oct 11, 2012, at 5:45 AM, J.Rayl wrote:

Well, I really do not see what is so difficult about the concept of being asked to stow your cane in a safe place on a plane.  Its not like you need to hold onto it, or that you are using it on the plane.  Its not like someone else is likely going to take it?  Now I"m sorry, if my dog can be stuffed down underneath a seat, get her butt kicked by the bratt or adult in back of us and her nose kicked by the bratt in front of us a gazillion times, not be able to see a dang thing that is really going on, have her ears fill up with pressure and deal, have her bladder fill up and have to deal, be thirsty, etc. I'm sure, just very sure, your cane can ride where ever its stowed for the duration of that plane trip until its back all safe and sound in your little hand.  And if you're really that lost without it, take control of your life and use a folding one which you can fold up and put in your own carry on where you can know right where it is, get it and put it away.  <geesh>
I just really, really do not see the big deal of all this: security checks, etc., etc.
Some of you act as though its the invasion of a lifetime.  <LOL>  
And, its likely only to get worse--not better.
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2012 8:11 AM
Subject: Re: [acb-l] Here's a thought about Laurie and the nonflight

Oh, I agree. Take a government agency, add people who take their jobs absolutely literally and you get insanity. What really astonishes me is that there are still people in this world who don't know what the white cane is for. The only thing I can think of in stories of discrimination against the blind involving planes is that someone actually believes the person with the white cane is posing as a blind person and the attendant or security person goes into Superpatriot mode.
Chris
On Oct 10, 2012, at 9:00 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:

Chris,
 That  scenario is so off the wall crazy that it has to have come from the mind of Homeland Security.  Where else outside of Alice in Wonderland could such insanity be hatched? 
But in fairness, long before we declared war on Terror and began terrorizing our own people in our efforts to keep us safe, see what I mean?  it's crazier than Alice in Wonderland, airlines were practicing being stupid.  I must have wrestled with a dozen shapely flight attendants over the right to retain my solid fiberglass travel cane.  
"This could become a missile in case of severe turbulence", I was told.  "I could become a dangerous missile, too", I told them.  But no amount of logic, humor, begging or throwing a hissy fit could sway them from their preprogrammed course.  
And it has become ten thousand times worse now that we are really being protected.  I had a fellow spend about twenty minutes feeling up the seams of my jeans in the San Diego     airport last year.  "Are you finding something there?" I asked him.  no answer.  "What are you expecting to find?"  I tried laughing about it.  Still no answer.  But each time I commented, he bent to his task and began all over again.  "Would you like me to take them off so you can turn them inside out?"  No answer. 
"You know, if you keep this up we're going to have to begin dating".  Finally, as the line behind us began snarling that they were going to miss their flight, another person arrived.  This one had a brain between its ears.  "Keep them moving," she ordered in a tone that suggested torture if he did not. 
But it must have worked.  My jeans did not burst into flame and the plane landed safely in Seattle.  Around that same time across the United States a coupled of fellows proved that it is still possible to smuggle a device of mass destruction aboard a commercial plane. 
Someone did not check their jeans closely enough. 
 
Carl Jarvis
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 1:25 PM
Subject: [acb-l] Here's a thought about Laurie and the nonflight

I want to begin by saying that what I'm writing in this message shows  
a real lack of training on the part of the airline staff. It's just  
something to be aware of.
My husband, who keeps up with how criminal minds work and how plane  
security is handled gave me something to think about when I told him  
about the article and video about Laurie and her inability to get from  
here to there on the plane.
According to Jon, staff on airlines are trained to look for scenarios  
that can happen when suspected terrorists are on a plane. It goes like  
this: Someone comes onto the plane. This person could be posing as a  
blind person or could actually be blind. The "blind" person needs to  
go directly to the bathroom. Someone has left a gun in the little  
bathroom. Our person with the white cane then comes out; gets to her  
seat; then asks to trade seats with the person sitting next to her.  
Somehow the weapon gets from the blind person into the hands of  
someone who is in line with the new seat.
Let me be clear: I don't think Laurie was doing this but the airline  
staff was probably trained to look for just this type of scenario and  
wouldn't let it go. Even before I knew about this possibility I never  
had a problem sitting in a window seat and never asked to trade seats  
with anyone. It just never occurred to me to do that. It might have  
been the courteous thing to do but it may have triggered a whole chain  
of events that didn't need to happen. We'll never know if the  
flapdoodle happened because of post 9/11 training or not but things  
like this come up with sighted passengers and it shouldn't happen to  
anyone, blind or sighted. Airline staff shouldn't behave like robots;  
they should be observant human beings.
Chris
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